Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-07
THE BOX WAS KNOCKED OFF.

inquiry sent ahead, preferring ourselves to tell the story of the impressed powder train and Beauregard's need of ammu- milton. While this was being done, others threw few Instructions on the track. When once more on board we noticed a quickening of speed that after our long rest was delightful. We had been run ming slowly since leaving Big Shanty, but now Andrews said to his crew, "Push her, wood, and the fire, which was but moder- Rte when we left Kingston, was soon roar .ng and great clouds of smoke escaping. Our lead, r's intention was to reach Adairs- vile in few ninutes, in order to meet two trains there which were now overdue. These were the through freight and the southern passenger trains, and they would wait for us ('sFuller's train'') there. Our terrible delay in Kingston was in every way most unfortunate. If there had been no extra trains we could by this time have been at Dalton, forty miles further up the road, with the Oostenaula bridge burned behind us, and, these two trains passed, leaving no further serious obstacle to con- tend with.
 But while so anxious to reach AdairS- vile, the next station above, where there was side track, it would never do to leave the way open from Kingston, as the distance is only ten miles, and if the ene- my choose to make up Q pursuing train at that point, on account of suspicious formed, it might be very embarrassing. So it seemed that we had scarcely got under full headway at a tremendous rate of speed before the tender brakes, all that we had on our train, were put sharply down, and we were on the ground almost before the train had stopped, and under the energetic leadership of Andrews were hard at work lifting the track, the readi- est mode of effective obstruction in our power. We again cut the wire, and also loaded on large number of ties and other kinds of wood to be used in burning the bridge We were the more anxious l for abundant fuel, as the ceaseless rain, which was now severe, would render kindling fire without much wood slow | and difficult. No time was lost in these 1 operations, as but few could work at | track lifting at once, and others were ready for any other useful employment. Lifting Q rail seems easy enough, but it was far from easy in practice. The rail is long and heavy; it is securely bolted to l other rails, and fastened with great spikes 1 driven into solid oak ties, which in turn are deeply imbedded in the ground. This 1 was the first place we wished to take up a rail very quickly, and accordingly we were far more sensible of the difficulty than when we had abundance of leisure. We were not excited, for we believed our selves ahead of any probable pursuit; but l to pass the two trains still before us, and hurry to our real work of bridge burning, was an ardent desire. Slowly we drew out spike after spike, battering out the great nails as rapidly as possible with our one iron bar. l cannot tell how many | Yfoc but 1>xy swiftly. The large load of ties, which were not far away, was great acquisi- tion, and were all on board before the stubborn rail was half loosened.
 The rail was loosened at the southern end, and for perhaps two-thirds of it's length was cleared of spikes. Eight of us, including our strongest men, took hold of it, to try to pull out the remainder by the rail itself. But they were too firmly